At the same time that Mayor Bloomberg is stepping up his campaign to plant 1 million trees, the Sanitation Department plans to eliminate a special leaf-collection program due to budget cuts.

The agency pruned $2.2 million from its $1.3 billion budget for fiscal 2009 as part of a larger reduction Bloomberg imposed throughout city government to deal with the economic downturn.

Only one sharp-eyed official connected the cutback to Bloomberg’s widely publicized effort to plant a million trees by 2017.

That effort has been gaining ground in recent weeks, with David Rockefeller donating $5 million – which was promptly matched by Bloomberg – followed by a $1 million contribution from Sting’s rock band, The Police.

“There’s going to be a lot more trees, but no leaf pickups?” asked the perplexed official.

Actually, Sanitation Department spokesman Vito Turso said leaves would continue to be collected with regular trash.

What’s being eliminated are four special Sunday leaf collections, each falling within 37 of the city’s 59 tree-laden community boards, covering all of Queens and Staten Island and sections of Brooklyn and The Bronx.

Those leaves were brought – on overtime – to collection centers and turned into compost.

“Rather than ask taxpayers to pay more, we’re cutting back in city spending where it has the least effect on government services,” explained mayoral spokesman Stu Loeser.

The city budget is being adopted next month and the City Council could still restore the special collections.